"Kennedy, Leigh - Belling Martha" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kennedy Leigh)

Martha wasn't ready to have the decision made for her. She couldn't believe her father was not nearby. She shouted, "Harry Jim!"

"You little fish, I'll stew you.Е" the woman said, walking toward her again.

The back door swung open. Martha swiveled to look. The face could have been handsome or beetle-like, she didn't notice, but it was wrong, all wrong, and that made it horrible.

"Git!" the woman shouted, and Martha hesitated only long enough to shake the uncertainty of terror out of her bones, then pushed through the front door.

As soon as she came in sight of the city gates, she knew she'd lost her caution. She stopped. Before her was the battered sign on a brick wall just outside the gates:


WELCOME TO AUSTIN, TEXAS STATE CAPITAL
Above her, the sentry leaned out of his watch booth, sighting her down his gun barrel. "Don't move," he said through a loudspeaker.

Martha stood completely still. For the first thirteen years of her lifeЧuntil she'd been taken to the campЧshe had seen the walls of Austin, but she'd never been so close as now.

"Drop that bag."

Martha let her bag of possessions slip from her hand onto the frosty mud.

Still, the guard kept his weapon on her. "Do you have a pass?"

She started to say no, but thought better of it. "I got jumped in the back of a government truck. They stole my pass, then shoved me out. Been walking for three days."

The sentry paused. After a moment, the box that he stood in eased down the wall on a track. When it was about a meter from the ground, it stopped with a mechanical bounce. One of the spotlights atop the wall swiveled until it shone directly on her. She raised her hand to shield her eyes.

"Throw your bag over here."

Martha picked up her bag and flung it toward the box. The sentry moved cautiously, watching her, and stepped sideways to pick the bag up with a hook. He examined it inside his box. "Take your clothes off."

"It's too cold!"

"Do you want inside the city?"

She peeled everything off, including her boots, shivering so hard that she could barely throw the heap toward him. After a few moments, the voice in the loudspeaker said, "Come in." The gate opened just a bit; Martha squeezed through the opening. Someone grabbed her arm as she entered. Peripherally, she saw the sentry box rising up the wall again.

She stood naked inside the gates of the cityЧfor the first time. Trampled pathways glittered coldly under the bowed heads of street lamps. Small houses shouldered one another as if for comfort, their windows dark. The wind whined eerily through broken panes of glass. The sound of loose metal clanged in the wind.

She'd imagined cities to be clean havens for good folk but it looked more miserable than outside to her. Still, she thought, surveying all the possible places for residence, there must be a lot of food here.Е

The solider who held her arm stared hard at her face. "What's your name?"

Martha blinked, "Uh Е Martha Е"

"Hey, Carrie," called the sentry above. "Take my post a while."

"Shit," the solider with Martha muttered. "Come on down," she said impatiently. As the other hurried down a metal stairway, she took on a warning tone. "You're going to get caught one of these days, you horny dog. Someday the governor's daughter will come through WP."

"This isn't the governor's daughter," he said, taking Martha's hand. "Come on, now, I got to check you in. You want in the city, right? You got relatives?"